HANG 10: ELI MANNING HAS BEEN A MIRACLE WORKER FOR THE GIANTS THIS SEASON BUT COUNTING ON HIS HEROICS IS A DANGEROUS WAY TO PLAY.

The second-half collapses that have marred recent Giants seasons can be avoided this year with better first halves of games.

YES Network analyst and former Giants tight end Howard Cross said the team has become too dependent on quarterback Eli Manning’s ability to rally them late in games. Manning led the team to three straight second-half comebacks against the Bills, Dolphins and Patriots, but couldn’t pull off miracles in their back-to-back losses to the 49ers and Eagles.

“As good as Eli is playing you can’t keep doing that to him,” Cross said. “He’s going to do it a lot, but not every time, and that’s what happened the last couple of weeks.”

And that’s dropped the Giants to 6-4. As of now, they are a half-game behind the Cowboys in the NFC East after Dallas’ 20-19 victory over the Dolphins yesterday. It will be difficult for the Giants to stay there with matchups against the Saints and the Packers the next two weeks, but Cross said he believes the injuries that have been at the center of collapses in recent years should not be an issue this season.

“In the past there’s been a lot of injuries; now they seem to be getting a lot of guys back outside of [Michael] Boley,” Cross said. “You have to get a lead, hold a lead, run the ball. And right now they are missing some of that, they are hanging on trying to make plays at the last minute, and that doesn’t always work out.”

That running game may have hit a low point in the defeat against the Eagles on Sunday night. Brandon Jacobs took the bulk of the blame after running for 21 yards on 12 carries, but Cross does not think that the banged-up Ahmad Bradshaw would have fared much better.

“It starts with the running game and the offensive line. They are struggling, there is no secret about it,” said Cross, who is an analyst on “This Week in Football” and a sideline reporter for the Giants’ radio broadcasts on WFAN.

“There’s no conversation that can be had about them being light years better or that they are close. … You need to be able to run the ball and move the chains. Even if Eli can spin it in this cold weather and the wind, you still have to be able run it and they are still struggling.”

If the Giants cannot run the ball and control the clock Monday night in New Orleans, they could be in a for a long night against Drew Brees and the Saints. And stopping the high-powered offense will be even more difficult since their head coach, and former Giants offensive coordinator, Sean Payton used his bye week to prepare for the Giants.

“And he’s had a chance to study and look at the Giants, so they will be attacking all of their weaknesses,’’ Cross said. “[The Giants’] young linebackers will really have to be on their game. Brees isn’t that big of a guy; they have to get their hands up and cloud his windows. The defense is going to have to come up big, they have been playing pretty well.”